The increasing prominence of “nontraditional” employment has raised concern both in the population at large and among economists. It has been suggested that part-time employment has been seen as an indication that the economy cannot provide enough full-time jobs (Robertson, 1989: 395). It is claimed that the lack of full-time job growth is the source of our most important and economic and social problems (Gregory, 2002: 271). This essay investigates the claim that the key labour market pro

Since the early 1980s the focus of public policy with respect to the labour market has been twin problems of the unemployment rate and the number of unemployed people. Conventional measures suggest that the Australian labour market is healthy (Barrett, 2000: 15). However, Gregory (2002) argues that in terms of understanding our increasing economic and social problems, there should be a shift in emphasis away from unemployment and towards the key labour market problems, which include the lack of full-time job growth and the rapid growth of all welfare recipients. A consensus now seems to have developed in favour of this argument with Watson (2000) suggesting that the official unemployment rate does not provide any useful information about the quantity or quality of employment that is available. On top of this Barrett (2000) suggests that even though the unemployment rate has declined other serious labour market problems have arisen. In particular economic polarisation and social exclusion that is a consequence of the continued loss of full time jobs and the creation of increasing numbers of non-standard jobs. At 1970, one in twenty members of the ‘working age population’ were supported by government pensions and benefits. In 2002, the ratio is one in five (Gregory, 2002: 278) this alone suggests that the growth in welfare recipients is a major problem and that current labour policies are failing in their objective to reduce those receiving payments.

Personal and Other Services 317.4 339.5 6.96% 3.80% 4.01%

Electricity, Gas and Water Supplies 66.7 64.6 -3.15% 0.80% 0.76%

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